For start-ups to succeed, founders need to be resilient and persistent even when the odds are stacked against them, said the CEO of Y Combinator (YC), a United States of America-based start-up accelerator.

Michael Seibel, in a tweet chat with The Guardian on Wednesday, said: “start-ups are [a] tough work” which require founders to be resilient.

Y Combinator, founded in 2005 specialises in seed, early stage venture, and debt financing investments. The organisation has financed companies such as Dropbox, Airbnb, Stripe, Loopt, Justin.tv, Weebly and Scribd.

Seibel, however, pointed that the company does more than simply identifying and financing young businesses. “The most valuable thing YC provides,” he said, “is a community of founders and partners who support your efforts to grow and scale.”

He confirmed that his company has invested in four start-ups in Nigeria that met certain criteria and was looking to invest in more.

“We want founders who want to solve big problems no matter where they are,” he said.

However, start-ups to be invested in by YC must have a unique product or service being provided, traction, market size, unique insight, business model and a team.